Frenchman Benoît Saint-Denis, a former special forces soldier converted to MMA, crushed the American Matt Frevola in the first round on Saturday in New York for his sixth UFC fight. With this success, Saint-Denis (27 years old, 5 wins, 1 loss) continues to climb the hierarchy and opens the doors to the top 15 lightweights in the UFC, barely four years after his debut in the discipline. .
In a minute and a half of combat, Saint-Denis delivered ten blows to his opponent. After a trip to the ground, he kicked him in the head to put him on the ground and continued with fists before the referee stopped him, in the prestigious Madison Square Garden in New York, on the card of UFC 295, where Donald Trump went, receiving a standing ovation from the audience upon his arrival.
Pereira by referee stoppage
UFC 295 suffered the withdrawal of legend Jon Jones a few weeks ago, who was scheduled to face Stipe Miocic in the heavyweight category. In the same category, it was ultimately the Englishman Tom Aspinall who put on a show by dominating the Russian Sergei Pavlovich, who remained on six victories by knockout in the first round. Aspinall knocked out his opponent with a right after just over a minute of fighting, to capture an interim belt.
The main fight of the evening involved the under 93 kg belt, won by the Brazilian Alex Pereira, who needed two rounds to dominate the Czech Jiri Prochazka. Pereira violently hit his opponent with a right hook during a standing phase, before the referee stopped the fight.